Coptic Monastery, Egypt, 2010

Barbara and I had spent several days in Alexandria, and were traveling back to Cairo to catch a flight home. Somehow we heard about this Coptic Monastery in the Nitrian Desert, established in the 4th century. It’s about halfway between Alexandria and Cairo, so rather than taking the train we hired a car service to drive us back, with a stop at the monastery along the way. It’s a long way from any substantial population center, so there were few people there, some curious visitors like us, and a few monks going about their daily routine. What appealed to me most was the interaction of the strong desert sunlight and the forms of the structures, some dating back to the first millennium. The scene reminded me of some of the classic photographs of the adobe buildings in the U.S. southwest, like the Hopi Pueblo at Taos, NM.

To see more images from our visit, https://www.billdurrence.com/index/G0000qtAFJjpwDI0